Oregon’s Gladieux heading to NCAA championships

The field for the 2021 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships has been announced and seven members of Trine University track and field count themselves among the competitors, including sophomore Jake Gladiuex from Oregon.

The men’s team will send four student-athletes competing in five events to the competition which will be held in Greensboro, N.C.

Gladieux, who attended Whitmer, becomes the lone Thunder student-athlete to qualify for two events at the championships. 

He will enter the 400-meter hurdles as the six-seed having qualified with a time of 52.89. In the 110-meter hurdles event, he will compete as the eight-seed after qualifying with a time of 14.43.

“From day one at Trine, Jake has been a leader both on and off the track.  He is undefeated in the 400 meter hurdles this year and has only lost to a couple Division II athletes in the 110 meter hurdles.  Jake is ready to perform in Greensboro and reach his goal of becoming an All-American.” said Trine University ccach Josh Fletcher

The Trine University men’s track and field team returned home as Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) Outdoor champions following a strong second day at the event. The team won the title in dominating fashion posting a score of 244 with the nearest competitor coming in at 119½. It is the first time that Trine University has won the MIAA outdoor track championship since joining.

Five individual runners came away with wins along with one relay team. Gladieux accounted for two of those victories on his own, winning the 400m hurdles with a 53.97 and in the 110 hurdles with a time of 15.15. 

Earlier this season, Gladieux was named the MIAA Outdoor Track “Athlete of the Week.” Gladieux and the Thunder men’s track and field team started off the outdoor season with a win at the Tiger Triangular hosted by Wittenberg University.

Gladieux won a pair of individual events by sweeping the hurdles races starting with a time of 14.98 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and then crossed the finish line with a winning mark of 53.68 seconds in the 400m hurdles.

Trine finished fifth overall after the final day of events at the Division III Elite Indoor Championships hosted by Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. The men finished with an overall team score of 37.5 points to place fifth out of 30 teams.  Host school Wartburg won the meet with 107 points and Loras (Iowa) College was third with 100 points.  Bethel (Minn.) University was third with 43 points. Individually, Trine had three competitors participate on the final day that included Gladieux in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles.  

Trine captured its third MIAA Indoor Championship in program history and back-to-back titles at the Keith E. Busse/Steel Dynamics Athletic and Recreation Center in Angola, Ind. Trine finished with a team total of 182 points, 81 points ahead of both Hope (Mich.) College and Olivet (Mich.) College who placed in a tie for second with 101 points each.  

On the track, the Thunder had a trio of event winners in the 60-meter dash, the 60-meter hurdles and the distance medley relay.  

The Thunder had four runners advance to the finals in the 60-meter dash, led by Gladieux who posted the top overall time of 8.30 seconds, improving upon his preliminary time by eight one-hundredths of a second.